On March 7, 2025, Stavropol police detained seven Turkmen students who were peacefully protesting against forced transfers to universities in regions near the front line of the war in Ukraine and the threat of expulsion from North Caucasus Federal University (NCFU).
During the demonstration, the students demanded that NCFU provide them with transcripts and other documents that would allow them to transfer to another university of their choice. In response, NCFU employees called the police. According to students, officers forcibly arrested them, including by beating them. Students were later charged with either disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) or petty hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). On March 8, the district court sentenced each student to 10 days of administrative arrest.
On March 8, the day after the demonstration, Russian immigration enforcement raided NCFU dorms and detained 35 Turkmen students, some of whom were deported to Turkmenistan shortly afterward.
The incident followed months of increasingly challenging conditions for Turkmen students studying in Russia. At the beginning of the academic year, students from Turkmenistan had faced delays in visa processing at Russian consulates, causing them to miss the start of classes and begin the term in late December. Upon their arrival at NCFU, university faculty and staff accused the students of limited proficiency in the Russian language and low attendance. The students claimed that the NCFU administration had conducted daily searches of their dorm rooms and looked for pretextual reasons to expel them. According to local media reports, the university expelled or forcefully transferred to other universities at least 48 Turkmen students in total.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about the arrest, prosecution, and deportation of students in apparent retaliation for academic and expressive activities — conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Russia is a signatory. State authorities must refrain from actions intended to restrict or punish the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly as long as it is carried out peacefully and responsibly.
In addition, Scholars at Risk is about the expulsion and forcible transfer of students for reasons that are apparently ethnically motivated. Such attacks undermine core higher education values, including equitable access and academic freedom, and democratic society generally.
Sources:
https://ovd.info/express-news/2025/03/12/studentov-iz-turkmenistana-deportirovali-iz-rossii-posle-skhoda-protiv
https://www.kavkazr.com/a/studenty-iz-turkmenistana-zayavili-o-prinuditeljnom-perevode-iz-stavropoljskogo-vuza-v-prigranichnye-regiony/33345022.html
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/409375
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/409983
https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/409698